The case of Vidal Brítez Alcaraz, the 56-year-old president of Santa María's Association of Yerba Mate Producers in Paso Yobái, Paraguay, illustrates the escalating tensions between traditional agriculture and extractive industries in Latin America's resource-rich regions. Despite his documented absence from the scene, Brítez was charged alongside five other yerba mate producers following a January 2025 confrontation between mining supporters and environmental defenders – a clash that erupted when police enforced a controversial court order allowing mining waste trucks to cross a yerba mate producer's property. This legal targeting of Brítez, who suffers from asthma and faces health risks while detained, appears to represent a broader pattern of criminalising environmental defenders in Paraguay, where transnational mining companies Latin American Minerals Paraguay Lampa SA and CEMA SA operate gold extraction operations using mercury and cyanide. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights, Marcos Orellana, had previously documented in 2022 that these operations were causing "serious environmental impacts" threatening yerba mate production – a culturally significant and economically vital crop for the region. Despite multiple criminal complaints filed by producers with the Villarrica regional prosecutor's office regarding Environmental Crimes and market losses resulting from contamination, authorities have failed to address the illegal polluting practices while simultaneously prosecuting those who resist them.